The latest findings from UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) deliver a damning indictment of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) regime.
At the heart of the Committee’s critique is Track 2 MAiD, which permits assisted death for disabled people not nearing natural death. This policy is characterized as being structurally ableist, perpetuating the dangerous myth that disability inherently justifies death, rather than addressing the systemic discrimination, poverty, and lack of support that drive despair.
Women and marginalized disabled individuals disproportionately seek Track 2 MAiD, exposing how Canada’s policies intensify inequality. The Committee also soundly rejects Canada’s planned 2027 expansion to mental illness as sole eligibility, along with proposals for mature minors or advance requests.
Instead, the CRPD suggests that Canada:
- Divert resources from MAiD to life-affirming supports (housing, healthcare, poverty reduction);
- Center Indigenous and marginalized communities in policy redesign.
These observations are powerful advocacy tools for shifting Canada’s policies toward meaningful support for persons with disabilities.
They want us dead. It’s obvious to anyone with a disability. They make sure we live in beyond poverty conditions, only have access to extra funding if we are so disabled we need care, they limit how much income we make to a nominal amount, many of us pay our own medical expenses and have no medication, dental or eye care coverage. Living expenses as an individual are impossible. To have a family is beyond impossible.
Yet, MAID is easily accessible. I could kill myself within a few weeks if I wished to. They make it terrible for us then say aww shucks that’s too bad. Look at that cripple offing themselves. What a shame.
The media accounts of disabled people choosing death over living in poverty with little to no future are out there. No one cares. If they did it would be changed or someone would be speaking about it other than those who have little to no voice already.
